Heath Aston, political correspondent

Congratulating the government on its amendments: Frederick Toben. Photo: Supplied

Holocaust denier Frederick Toben has strongly backed the Abbott government's plans to water down race hate laws, describing them as a welcome challenge to "Jewish supremacism" in Australia.

In an explosive submission to Attorney-General George Brandis' review of the Racial Discrimination Act, obtained by Fairfax Media, Mr Toben congratulated the government for its attempt to rectify what he describes as a "flawed law, which only benefits Jewish-Zionist-Israeli interests".

His comments drew immediate anger in the Jewish community, which has warned that the government's plans for Section 18C of the act will open the door to "vilification on a massive scale".

Mr Toben said Senator Brandis – who famously defended people's "right to be a bigot" – had incorrectly claimed the need for reform of the Racial Discrimination Act was about free speech and the conviction of News Corp columnist Andrew Bolt under 18C.

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"The essence of what the RDA Section 18C is all about and why it needs to be repealed is that the so-called 'Bolt law' is in effect a 'Holocaust' protection law," Mr Toben wrote.

"The 'Bolt law' case was used in an attempt to hide this Holocaust matter and to make it a free expression issue. The trap set for the multiculturalists in Australia by Jewish interests, who designed Section 18C, is that the sole aim of this section has always been to legally protect ... the Holocaust-Shoah narrative."

Senator Brandis distanced the government from Mr Toben's support on Tuesday, describing him as a "nutter".

"I've never read anything that Mr Toben has said but I'm aware of his views from press reports and views I've heard attributed to Mr Toben are absolute rubbish," he said.

"I don't agree with Mr Toben but I do agree with President Barack Obama who said last week in relation to the Donald Sterling case: 'when people, when ignorant folks want to advertise their ignorance, you don't have to do anything, you just let them talk'."

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry, the Australia-Israel and Jewish Affairs Council, and the Zionist Federation condemned Mr Toben but said it was the government's proposal that would allow him to freely peddle his views.

Mr Toben, a German-born Australian, was found to be in breach of discrimination laws in 2003. He went to jail in 2009 for defying Federal Court orders to remove material from his website that claimed there were no gas chambers at Auschwitz, and describing the murder of millions of Jews during World War II as the "Holocaust myth''.

Executive Council of Australian Jewry executive director Peter Wertheim said: "I am sure the government will derive no joy at all from Fredrick Toben's endorsement of its proposals to water down section 18C and 18D of the Racial Discrimination Act.

"Toben has spent a large part of his life vainly attempting to rehabilitate the disgraced record of Nazi Germany. If the government's proposed changes to the law are enacted, racist rants of this kind will be given a free pass on the basis that they are part of a public discussion.

"Worse still, overtly racist discourse will be given the accolade of freedom of expression. It's time for the government to abandon its ideologically-driven attempt to emasculate laws that have worked well for nearly 20 years."

Tsvi Fleischer of the Australia-Israel and Jewish Affairs Council said the changes proposed by the government were a licence to vilify on a massive scale.

"Toben's submission is more evidence of that," he said. "If the changes go through according to the government's model for comment, we do fear that people like Toben will be able to say whatever he wants – which is usually how evil the Jews are all the time."

Labor senator Lisa Singh said: "Mr Toben is wrong in almost everything he says, except in his claim that the Abbott government's changes would give him licence to continue his racist tirades.

"George Brandis has offended the vast majority of communities and organisations across Australia with his proposals to license racism. The only people still supporting him unequivocally are extremists like Holocaust denier Frederick Toben."

53 comments

With friends like that Brandis might find the freedom to humiliate and intimidate just that bit harder to defend.

Bigots of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but your xenophobia!

Commenter

Truthisfree

Location

WA

Date and time

May 14, 2014, 8:44AM

That is a most unkind and hurtful comment Al, to suggest that the honourable member, Mr Brandis, gets his inspiration from Mr Toben is clearly untrue as Mr Brandis tells us this is untrue, and we all know that politicians always tell the truth, as the budget bares out.

Commenter

Zjonn

Date and time

May 14, 2014, 11:50AM

This is exactly why the government should never change section 18C of the racial discrimination act. What a disgusting human being. All to placate Andrew Bolt. Ugh

Commenter

Peaches

Date and time

May 14, 2014, 5:51AM

By making his speech illegal, the government implies that there's an element of truth and power to his speech.

I'd much rather he be allowed to air his views in public, where they can be showed for the intellectually dishonest sham that they are. The way to fight bad speech is with good speech, not with draconian censorship.

Commenter

James Hill

Location

Melbourne

Date and time

May 14, 2014, 7:52AM

I have a friend who witnessed the holocaust. He saw the trains. He visited the site in 1945 when it had just been vacated. He saw human remains still lying there.

In the light of this and tons of other evidence the notion of holocaust denial resides on a spectrum somewhere between delusion, denial and personality disorder.

Nevertheless, if someone wants to say 'it never happened' then let them do so. They can produce their evidence. This can be assessed against evidence from the other side. It is mind-blastingly clear who will win.

I did object to David Irving being denied entry to this country due to Jewish influence. Irving was only ever going to discredit himself. The Jewish lobby is telling me what I can hear and what I cannot. That is not acceptable!

Commenter

Jasper the Labrador

Date and time

May 14, 2014, 9:07AM

@James Hill"I'd much rather he be allowed to air his views in public, where they can be showed for the intellectually dishonest sham that they are."

On a theoretical level I agree with this.

However, I think that conspiracy theorists (Holocaust deniers, 9/11 deniers, people who believe that the Moon landings were faked, etc, etc) are incapable of rational thought.

They are so locked into their conspiracy theories that they are unable to accept or discuss, in an intellectually honest way, the abundant evidence which shows that their conspiracy theories are nonsense.

Commenter

Dr Kiwi

Date and time

May 14, 2014, 12:20PM

Holocaust denial or not, the fact remains that Mr Toben, myself, the lady sitting across from me having her coffee and the chap that served me in the supermarket last night are all entitled to "Free Speech"

I will not be told by an inept government what I can and cannot say. This is not George Orwell's "1984".....yet.

Commenter

Dr Raines

Location

Sydney

Date and time

May 14, 2014, 6:16AM

So, it's OK if I humiliate and intimidate you in my reply? I don't think you would like me using my free speech in that way.

But I'm guessing that you are a white male - and therefore I would only breach 18C if I intimidated or humiliated you based on your race, so that isn't likely to happen.

Commenter

mattoxic

Location

Mont Albert

Date and time

May 14, 2014, 7:33AM

Dr Raines, you have no God given right to tell harmful mistruths about people.

Having said that, why don't you (for the sake of placating your feelings of righteous indignation) get on a plane and tell the flight attendant you have a bomb? In court later, tell them it was simply a statement about freedom of speech. Better yet, give this a go in the good old US of A - the bastion of free speech.